ML19241B377
| ML19241B377 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 06/06/1979 |
| From: | Budnitz R NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| To: | Levine S NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19241B374 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7907160271 | |
| Download: ML19241B377 (7) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES
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h NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION E
WASHING TON, D. C. 20$55
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g jut.' F 1979 l
MEMORANDUM FOR: Saul Levine, Director l
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research i
FROM:
Robert J. Budnitz, Deputy Director Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research l
SUBJECT:
INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS i
CONTACTED BY ME DURING FIRST FEW DAYS AFTER THE l
TMI ACCIDENT I am responding to the memorandum of May 31, 1979, from E. K. Cornell,
" Request for Information from Presidential Commission."
I have gone over my log book for that period, and have found seven outside individuals with whom I had substantive contact.
In each case, my contact was the only or the primary NRC contact. Besides these individuals, there is a large number with whom I spoke but for whom the primary contact was you or T. Murley.
I assume that you and he are assembling your own lists, similar to mine, and that you will cover those other individuals.
For each individual, I will indicate their organirational affiliation, address and telephone number, as well as a brief description of what infortnation was furnished.
1.
Dr. Richard L. Garwin (I.B.M., Yorktown Heights, NY 10598,(914) 945-2555). On Saturday morning, March 31. I was called at home by Dr. Garwin, an old friend, and he provided a number of ideas to me about things that one might attempt to do to eliminate or reduce the pressure from hydrogen within the primary system of the TMI reactc.'
His 'deas included putting a snake-like tube into the vessel, ano using chemical means to combine hydrogen with other subs tances. He also gave me some insight into how important the back reaction is in calculating the shock pressure in a fast burn or detonation of hydrogen in a vessel like the TMI reactor vessel.
He referred me to Dr. Harry Petschek of AVC0 (see below) for assistance on the hydrogen combustion problem. Later that date, and again on Sunday, April 1, I talked with Dr. Garvin by telephone, to follow up on his understanding of pressure shock waves, something about which he had extensive advice.
2.
Dr. Harry Petschek (AVC0 Everett Research Laboratory, Everett, MA 02149, (617) 389-3000).
On Dr. Garwin's suggestion, I called Dr. Petschek on March 31, finally reaching him at home in late,;9,a.13 Or
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T Saul Levine 2
morning. He responded immediately by indicating that he and some colleagues could assist in understanding the issue of hydrogen combustibility and combustion kinetics in a reactor vessel such as at TMI.
Later that day and through Sunday, April 1, I spoke, two or three times, to Dr. Petschek and one or two of his colleagues.
They worked on the questions of what concentration of oxygen in pure hydrogen would be the threshold for combustion, particularly at the temperatures and pressures thought to be present at TMI (about 1000 psi at many hundreds of degrees F), and he reported back sometime Sunday on those. Dr. Petschek also referred me to Dr. Bernard Lewis in Pittsburgh, who turned out to be a highly-regarded expert in just these same issues.
3.
Dr. Bernard Lewis (Combustion and Explosives Research, Inc.,1016 Oliver Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, (412) 391-3633).
I finally reached Dr. Lewis, on referral frea Dr. Petschek, on Sunday morning, April 1.
He acknowledged expertise on the combustibility of hydrogen and oxygen; indeed, he is the coauthor of the definitive textbook on this subject. He and an assistant, reached at home on Sunday morning, worked through that day and part of Monday, April 2, and gave important advice on the issues that governed the physical behavior of hydrogen and oxygen burning in conditions such as were thought to exist at TMI. He gave information about the mixture of oxygen in pure hydrogen that would be a combustion threshold, talked at length to me about the physical difference between combustion and explosion, and what would be the impact of gaseous impurities.
He reported back his preliminary conclusions sometime after midday on Sunday, April 1, and his final conclusions in midmorpjng of Monday, April 2.
He calculated pressure ratios (pressure within a fast burning situation vs. starting pressure), detonation thresholds, heat release, flame temperatures, and other parameters. His insight was valuable in providing a perspective on which parameters were, and which were not, important in modifying the result of what was calculated using approximations.
4.
Dr. Harold A. Schwarz (Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973, FTS Tel. 666-4330).
Dr. Schwarz was referred to us by Dr. H. J. Kouts of BNL, who called several times during the TMI incident to provide tI advice. Dr. Schwarz worked much of the weekend of March 31 and April 1 on calculating the production and recombination rates of oxygen in the TMI primary coolant water. He did these calculations l
,i at home mostly, I think; telephone contacts with him during the weekend were at his home. He reported on the considerations that t
were involved in his calculations, and showed definitively that oxygen generation from radiolysis wopld not result in much oxygen j
in the gas phase, because of the recombination reaction with the
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assumed large hydrogen gas overpressure and the associated dissolved hydrogen. We were apprised of the preliminary results of Dr. Schwarz' work early on the morning of April 1, in my memory, but it was not firmed up until sometime shortly after midday on that day. Dr. Schwarz continued with his work for several days after Sunday, April 1, and filed a description of his calculation with NRC on April 24.M2214 l
Saul Levine 3
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l 5.
Dr. Heinz Heinemann (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory University of
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California, Berkeley, CA 94720, (415) 486-6000).
I telephoned Dr. Heinemann in early morning of Saturday, March 31 to follow up a suggestion of Dr. Garwin that the oil companies might have expertise i
in snake-like methods for extracting hydrogen from a pressure vessel like the TMI reactor vessel. Dr. Heinemann is a chemical engineer at my former laboratory in Berkeley and is a colleague and i
friend there, who spent most of his life working for Mobil Oil Corporation.
Dr. Heinemann referred me to Dr. J. Penick of Mobil, whom I called subsequently. Dr. Heinemann also discussed with me the question of addition of catalytic chemical agents to reduce the I
i hydrogen in water solution. Dr. Heinemann gave me the names of several catalysis chemists who might have expertise in this matter, and also enlisted in advice of two Berkeley colleagues. We talked several times over the weekend of March 31-April 1, but I turned over the entire problem of chemical hydrogen removal to others in NRC, and did not concern myself with the issue directly.
6.
Mr. Joseph E. Penick (Mobil Oil Corporation,150 E. 42 Street, New York, NY 10017, (212) 628-9757).
I contacted Mr. Penick on Saturday morning, March 31, on referral from Dr. Heinemann. He said that he thought Mobil could assist NRC with advice on the
,i availability of snake-like devices to extract gas from a TMI-like il pressure vessel. He called back later during the weekend (I recall j
his return contact as occurring on Sunday, April 1) and indicated l
that devices such as we sought were not readily available in the Mobil Corporation, and unlikely to be available elsewhere in the
,l petroleum industry. The problem was that the path into the reactor vessel from the outside to the upper dome was t:;o tortuous for the use of the devices that did exist, and the fabrication of a special device would be quite difficult.
7.
Dr. Laura Cherubini (17 Pandover Road, Billerica, MA 01821, (617) 667-9699.
Dr. Cherubini called me on her own on Saturday, March 31, l
with a suggestion of chemical means to reduce or eliminate hydrogen i
dissolved in the reactor coolant water.
I do not know how Dr. Cherubini received a reference to me. The method was to use algae that trap hydrogen from solution by presence of free electron acceptors.
Since I was not expert in this matter I turned it over to others at NRC for follow-up. However, by the time anything more could be done with this j i suggestion, the perception of the importance of a " hydrogen bubble" had l
diminished, and I think that no further follow-up occurred.
pLA GN l
Rcbert J. Budnitz, Deputy Director Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research l
cc:
T. Murley h5;.215 N.
INFORMATION FOR THI PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION HELP TO NRG-RESEARC4 k5k Time of Time of Outside Organization / Individual Assistance Requested Request Assistance A.
Department of Energy - Idaho Operations Office, Idaho Falls, Idaho 1.
Willis Bixby Coordination of INEL Research April 4/Apr116-13 Assistance from on-site at Harrisburg 2.
John James & Robert Long Locate Emergency Pumps April 6/ April 6-9 3.
George Vivian Arranged for Mobile Radiological April 6/ April 6 Survey Lab. at site B.
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) EG&G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls Idaho 1.
J. Henscheid TMI Water Samples Analysis at INEL Harch 30/Apr11 1 & 13 (dissolved H2 content) 2.
J. Dearien and Code Assessment Vessel and core structural response March 30/ Harch 30 -
Personnel
, calculations to possible H2 detonation April 1 en 3.
L. J. Ybarrondo and On-site technical assistance.
Evaluate March 30/ April 1-6 (n
N. C. Kaufman sequence of event during THI.
Evaluate
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various natural circulation conditions.
NH 4.
J. Liebenthal, et al Calculate H2 and 02 Concentrations in THI Harch 30/Harch 31 -
O Primary Cooling Loop April 1
Time of Time of Outside Organization / Individual Assistance Requested Request Assistance 5.
P. North & Code Development Natural circulation calculations with March 30/ March 30 Personnel RELAP for various cold shutdown to present conditions Small break calculations Simulation (analytical of THI transient) 6.
M. Stanley & Instrumentation Experimentally evaluate capability of April 3/Apr114 Personnel resistance temperature detector-RTD to measure pressurizer level 7.
D. J. Hanson & Semiscale Experimentally evaluate means to vent March 29/ March 30 Operational Personnel hydrogen bubble to present Experimental simulation of TMI sequence of events
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C. F. Obenchain and Code Performed calcu1ations of core component April 6/ April 9-12 Assessment Personnel temperatures during the accident C.
Billings Energy Corporation, Evaluate means'for degassing H.
March 31/ April 1 - 17 2
Provo, Utah H2 solubility as a function of depressur-ization Examine various catalysts for H2 scavenging D.
Knolls Atcmic Power Laboratory, Schenectady, N.Y.
that could April 3/ April 3 - 13 Dan Kronnenhock, et al Evaluate the quantitles of Hp p
be dissolved in the primary coolant r,,
water following a Zr-H2 reaction in the core q
Evaluate the means by which H2 in the i
primary coolant system might be reduced n:
Evaluate the available methods for re-ducing H2 in the containment atmosphere f.
Time of Time of Outside Organjzation/ Individual Assistance Requested Request Assistance E.
Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M.
J. V. Rivard, et al Determine the coolability of a postu-April 5/ April 9 - 20 lated rubblized TMI reactor core F.
Los Alanos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.
J. Vigil, et al.
Calculate the THI-2 transient using April 5/ April 5 the TRAC reactor transient computer to present code G.
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Long Island, NY J. M. Guppy, et al Use the SSC computer cede to calculate May 14/May 15 the THI-2 transient and natural circu-to present lation characteristics H.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN Ray Booth, et al Determine the status of the THI core April 3/ April 5
- using noise analysis techniques April 27 CC Cn PC lQ p+
GD
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i Input from Arsenault After consultation with C. Bartlett of RES, J. Collins, NRR, a member of the NRC-TMI team, contacted INEL, a RES contractor, to arrange for analysis of a highly radioactive sample of primary reactor coolant and for the dispatch of a mobile counting laboratory and a four man team to assist in sample taking and sample analysis.
Date of initial contact with INEi. 4/9/79.
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